Wow! I’m not sure what’s going on, but the administration’s lack of documentation for any of the complaints until the very last minute is very suspicious (and hints that the school probably doesn’t have a real system for evaluating teaching).

Normally I’d say the administration is utterly in the wrong here, but my one hesitation is that sexual harassment is rampant at North American universities. (They’re basically where private industry was twenty years ago.) A large part of the reason is the over-emphasis on research. A professor who does top-notch research and brings in the grant money can do pretty much whatever he wants. Professors have complete control over the career prospects of their graduate students, and as a result few students are willing to speak up when incidents occur. This case is unusual in that the professor is a woman. Then again, the charges sound like they were trumped up as an excuse to get rid of a professor who offended a handful of people in the community.

It does, however, sound like she didn’t moderate her language when in the elementary school classroom. I’ve dropped the occasional F-bomb in class for rhetorical effect, but I’d never do it in an elementary school classroom (not that I’m ever in one). But I’d never use the term pussy, which I assume is the word for female genitalia mentioned in the article. Lots of professors are tone deaf in their speech; it comes from rarely being challenged. If LSU had a rigorous system for teaching evaluation I bet this problem would have been corrected years ago without the need for excessive disciplinary action.

Susan Fiske, the former head of the Association for Psychological Science, wrote an op-ed accusing “self-appointed data police” of pioneering a new “form of harassment”. The German Psychological Society issued a statement condemning the unauthorised use of Statcheck. The intensity of the reaction suggested that many were afraid that the program was not just attributing mere statistical errors, but some impropriety, to the scientists.

This is exactly the reaction doctors have when being alerted to the occasions (the many occasions, in most cases) in which they fail to wash their hands properly before surgery. “How dare you! I’m a professional! Let me do my job!” Well, do your job properly and you won’t have to suffer this embarrassment.